Links for healthcare workers

The textbook that is never out of date

UpToDate - The resource to beat. For a price, but one comparable with a large textbook. Comes both on CD and online.

MDConsult - a general medical portals that aim to present information for all physicians. Offering medical news, many online textbooks (although these often don't adapt naturally to the Web) and other resources. Previously not so nephrology-oriented but not re-examined recently.

Rare disease information

OMIM- Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man - all you ever wanted to know about any inherited condition, on your desktop in a few mouse-clicks, and it's free. An astonishing resource. Click on OMIM at the top of the page. You can also search the literature using PubMed from here.

The resource centre

Many of the best sites on the Net for nephrology, as for other subjects, are the products of individual enthusiasts. Here are some examples.

HDCN - By John Daugirdas, so not surprisingly this site is particularly strong on dialysis-related topics. Most things you want turn out to be in the pay-only zone. Strong on recent literature (possibly too much?). Educational content as a series of well-produced multimedia presentations but lectures are slow, aren't they. Ones with patient info are free. Good calculators.

Links to electronic journals, guidelines, prescribing information and other resources

NOTE - Many professional society sites (ASN, ISN, etc, listed below) as well as 'Resource Centres' above provide long lists of links.

Renalnet - A particularly well maintained list with short (but non-critical) descriptions of each site.

www.milach.com- The ultimate links list, only for the brave, and it is only a list.

K/DOQI - K/DOQI guidelines are available from the NKF (USA) website. Both are for those who like a heavy wine.

KDIGO - compares renal management guidelines from different countries around the world.

A source of advice

The idea of talking to people to find their experiences is very attractive in theory, but following the larger or more general discussion groups, email lists, bulletin boards takes a lot of time. In practice the people answering the questions aren't necessarily the best qualified to do so. The smaller, subject or disease-specific sites often work much better.

Cybernephrology - Discussion groups for doctors and patients are listed under 'Communication'. The rest of this site (tended by Kim Solez, for the ISN) has yet to develop substantially. Some other links can be picked up from the Portals, such as The Kidney Information Centre, HDCN, Renalnet

Portals (gateways)

Renal replacement therapy

Also see the sites underRenal Diseases below.

RenalInfo- From Baxter Healthcare but non-partisan. Amongst the best sites providing information on dialysis, with good comparisons of peritoneal versus haemo. Even covers 'no dialysis' briefly. Illustrated with patients' and carers' stories. Rather complicated to negotiate though - those new to the Net would probably find it confusing.

RenalWEB - A portal devoted to dialysis from a fairly technical viewpoint, with an excellent collection of patients' resources, under 'If you're learning about dialysis'. The rest of the content is good for professionals too.

Renal diseases

This is something the web can do really well - provide good information on individual uncommon diseases. The general medical portals usually provide inadequate information. The problem is finding the reliable sites - it is hard to find good information on many quite common renal diseases. All of these sites attempt to provide it themselves or direct you to other reliable sites.

EdRenINFO - The part of this site produced with patient information in mind.

NIDDK - Each subject covered is clearly laid out but subject list is not comprehensive.

NKF (UK) - This British site has particularly good patient information and goes beyond ESRD. Go to Medical Info and keep following links. They also have a Telephone Helpline, 0845 601 0209.

NKF (USA) - The US equivalent just isn't as clearly put together for patients, but there is an 'A to Z index' of diseases.

Local education and health resources

HEBSWebHealth Education Board Scotland - a 5-star beautifully produced site with really excellent educational material - for example on stopping smoking, eating a healthy diet, drug abuse, and about common diseases - notably heart disease. Click on Public Site for this info. Although Cyberschool is aimed at teenagers, this information is worth reading by anybody - eg try then O2

SHOWScottish Health on the web - the site for links to almost all health resources within Scotland.

SIGNThe SIGN guidelines have caught on as one of the most imaginative projects in developing clinical guidelines in medicine since their inception in 1998.

Information about Edinburgh

Edinburgh Festivals This is particularly about the Edinburgh Festivals, but click on City Guide for information about the city at any time.

Gateway to Scotland Information about Scotland from the Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh. Many other resources about Scotland may be reached from here - or by searching.

Do you know of other sites that we should include? ..... please let us know at Renal@ed.ac.uk

Renal teaching resources

Help! I need to find some pictures for my lecture!The Google image search option is excellent for this. It is also an excellent way of picking up good sites on any topic. You must remember to ask permission/ give credit for any public use of images.

Pathology Tutorialby Charles Jennette, a pathologist at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is just that, and is excellent for beginners to work through. It's annoying that the illustrations are in separate pages from the text: use the right click (or Apple-click on a Mac) to open them in a separate window.

WebPathincluding renal pathology, plus some tutorials (including urine sediment), from the University of Utah

WebPath Guyhas an extraordinary quantity of mostly reliable information, a mix of lecture notes for medical students, pathology images for nephrologists, pathologists, radiologists etc, along with personal mission statements and essays on quackery, chess, this and that, and also the other. His pages are extremely long though, and tedious to download and scroll through. How does he find time to do any work?